A Texas-Size Trip

The boys and I headed to Dallas to spend a little time with Mimi, Poppie and Aunt Kiki before the holidays. This was our first airplane ride after 2-years of self-induced exile from any aircraft (thanks to Luke's MAJOR meltdown two years ago). The boys did FANTASTIC on the flight for me (with a little help from two PEZ candy dispensers)! They were real troopers throughout the flying process, and of course everyone thought they were TOO CUTE! Of Course!


Anxiously waiting for our airplane to arrive into Baltimore.


We're ready for this 5-hour journey! Let's hope the computer battery can hold up for a couple of movies...at least.





A "new" thing at Mimi and Poppie's house is the "arrival" of Mr. Tree. Okay...Mr. Tree turns out to be our good old tree in the front yard with an added feature of a face. Turns out Mr. Tree leaves presents for little boys and their mommy when they visit. Too fun!


Good Morning Mr. Tree!




Reading with Aunt Kiki


Check out those glow-in the dark bracelets from Mr. Tree! Too cool!


Bath time fun = water guns..."Shoot the wall, NOT MIMI!"

We wrapped up Texas with John meeting us in Austin and spending a whirlwind weekend in San Antonio and Austin. It was a great trip with both families filled with lots of love and laughter.

A great way to usher in December!

The Pout

Paden is our "Master Pouter". There is something about his little face and how quickly it can go from a sweet, smiley little boy to a fierce pout. He has the perfect lips for it too! Daddy asked him if he learned how to pout from brother Luke. Paden said "No, Paden." At least he claims it for his own!











FINALLY! All he wanted was a bite of Daddy's pizza. Guess that pout worked after all!

He's 4!

This has been the first year where we have actually had to count down to a certain little boy's birthday. Once November hit Luke knew his birthday was coming up...it was only a matter of 12 days...11 days...10 days...etc. What a hoot!

Friday morning came and we were greeted two little boys (as usual), only the oldest proudly declared "Hey Guys, I'm 4 today!"...he was so excited. I had asked Luke several times over the coming weeks what he wanted to do for his birthday and his choice was IHOP for breakfast and the aquarium. So what did we do? Well, we went to IHOP for breakfast and to the Baltimore Aquarium of course! What a fun day as a family! (We threw in Chick Fil A for lunch...not a bad addition.)

Here is our 4 year old!

The pure joy of opening birthday presents!










Yummy IHOP!




Baltimore Aquarium












Tired and Hungry...Chick Fil A comes to the rescue!






Checking out Frank the Fish


Happy Birthday Luke!

Halloween 2010 - Buzz and Woody

I owe you some pictures! We had so much fun this Halloween in our neighborhood this year. The young families got together for an early dinner/potluck and then split ways to take our kids trick-or-treating. We only did a few houses with the boys...we don't need a lot of candy in our house and the boys were tired too. Needless to say they loved their costumes!

Road Trip!

John recently had a much needed Spring Break -- it was a LONG time coming for all of us! It was a great week of hanging out in Montgomery for a few days, just enjoying our home and time together as a family...but we also hit the road! We had so much fun with our friends David and Krista in Atlanta back in February that we decided to go back! We hit up the same hotel (the Embassy Suites in Buckhead certainly was a nice treat) as we knew we were within walking distance of the MARTA (Atlanta's metro), Trader Joe's, and a great selection of restaurants and shops.

Back in February we toured Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium...this time we hit up CNN and Zoo Atlanta. Of course it was marathon/half-marathon weekend so we had a few crowds to work around...but it was all so much fun!

CNN was a pretty cool experience. John and I don't find ourselves watching network nor cable news much, but we really enjoyed seeing the inner-workings of CNN. The building was HUGE, bright and very colorful. We took the 55-minute walking tour and were thankful for a fun, patient Kimberly (our tour guide) who used our boys and distracted them at the same time. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures during the tour...so if you ever find yourself in Atlanta one day, take the time and check out the tour yourself!






Had a very hard time telling this big boy NOT to touch the Humvee!





Saturday was such a beautiful day that we decided to hit up Zoo Atlanta. What we didn't realize was that half of Atlanta's families had decided to do the same! They happened to have their "Marathon" 1-mile family walk and 5K AT THE ZOO! Say what?! So we joined the post-race crowds and enjoyed the many animals and rides. At times we were tempted to leave our own little monkeys in the exhibits...but we would miss them so!









































We wrapped up a great weekend in Atlanta with John running the half-marathon on Sunday morning. Now mind you, it was a race that began at 0700...in downtown Atlanta...on a dreary morning...there was no way on God's green Earth I was dragging two little boys to the race! John did GREAT even without our cheering him on...that man certainly has skills!

Atlanta makes for one AWESOME road trip for the Mizells!